The Shadow Wand: The Black Witch Chronicles, Book 3

**The Shadow Wand is book 3 of The Black Witch series by Laurie Forest, a riveting fantasy series ABOUT PREJUDICE AND RACIAL HATE WARS in a fantasy fae-magic-witch drenched fantasy setting, featuring potentially world-ending dark leadership and powers.I inhale Book 3, The Shadow Wand.Deep breath.
I close the book.
And I scream.I literally scream from the rise of energy and emotion.I scream from the intense knuckle-bludgeoning ride.I scream from release of hopes for this series, from surprise at plot twists, from power finally being claimed, taken as is birthright.
Wow wow wow WOW!!!Holy Ancient gods, all!Holy Ge'o, Holy planet!Holy existence of all that ever can be Holy!!

The Black Witch female hero-rising in The Shadow Wand installation is looking for her full empowerment to set the world right and eliminate racism and injustice upon Earthia. This is a story for the ages.This book is MUST READ FULL STARS highest rating all the way, written with soul-churning emotion and rising arcs of character and crescendo of event and urgency.
Book 3 launches during the most jaw-dropping of real world times, a book about Earthia-world race war…launching during a real Earth race war (the George Floyd murder being the ignition for righting injustices of prejudice in the US) and world pandemic, blurring reality over and over.IN SUMMARY, READ THIS.Feel the rising power of standing up to racism.
Feel the tides turn to aid those facing the Right Way, the Way of Compassion, the Way of Equality.Feel the alignment of Nature standing for what is right. 
Feel the Planet rising in response to unity (and to Environmental Care).
Feel the power we all need right now: 
Feel the power of a coming Great Leader, one born on the side of the oppressor instead moving to the side of aiding the oppressed, The Black Witch (she has green shimmering skin fyi).Read this book to feel the unity of that, the power of the universe streaming through you when you stand for what is right and stand for anti-racism.And enjoy the hell out of the fantasy powers and abilities and settings and magic and types of beings and rich character portrayals that frame this glorious ride. 
This is one ginormous E-ticket magical rune-stamped wand emblazoned ride, and it will take you as high and as low as your emotions can stretch. And it will leave you feeling hope, hope the evil can finally be stamped out, justice that is still in the offing in this series since there are two more installments coming.For those who have read the series thus far, you have to mostly wait a tiny bit for your favorite characters to take center stage again: there are new character introductions from the start, but it's not too much, if one is the tiniest bit patient to see beloved characters appear. Other epic series have woven far more. You will remember these new beings as their stories are also heart pounding and memorable. They fill roles needed as these lands are far-flung.These new introductions are written not as info dump but as micro stories that are written so well that one is left with emotion overflowing in only a glorious chapter, and the next and next, done with immediate reeling in and tapestry weaving. I immediately felt the knot rising in my throat from sorrow for what is unfolding for these new characters. That sort of reel-you-in-fast writing is hard to do! And yet Ms. Forest has done it so well.In the reading:
I highly recommend a refresh on the entire series before reading this installment.
READ WAND FASTED JUST PRIOR TO THIS INSTALLMENT.IMMEDIATELY OPEN THE SHADOW WAND *AFTER* CLOSING WAND FASTED.Chapter one will have you in gut wrenching torment IF you have just read Wand Fasted.THE SERIES ORDER:Read (or reread) in the following order:The Black WitchThe Iron FlowerLight MageWand FastedAnd AFTER closing Wand Fasted **IMMEDIATELY** read chapter one of The Shadow Wand.(AUDIO: Julia Whelan is back for the voiced narration, and she is MASTER in this telling! I HIGHLY recommend the audio, on Audible and Scribd, though I haven't heard it yet, she reins supreme in the voice acting for The Black Witch book 1 and The Iron Flower book 2, so her telling of book 3 is a given.)Enter the land of The Black Witch and you will not want to leave!

4.5/5.0First, a disclaimer: I am really not a fan of love triangles, especially when all three involved are deserving of that love. It is a guaranteed horrible ending for one undeserving character - no exceptions. I HATE that! And, that is exactly what happens in this third installment of the series. That being said....This is the most tightly written and riveting story in what is quickly becoming a favorite fantasy series of mine. There is so much tense yet riveting action that it is hard to take a breath and most assuredly impossible to put down!I will admit that the first 20% or so had me questioning what the heck the author is doing, as the chapters jumped from one secondary character to the next with no obvious connection whatsoever. While interesting, it was frustrating - until we hit on Elloran. Then, everything came into focus and things picked up fast and furiously. And, while all those characters are still left dangling at the end of the book, it is obvious things will come together soon.As for specific plotline, it is almost impossible to explain without giving HUGE spoilers away. Suffice it to say that things are coalescing as Elloran realizes the extent of her power and struggles to learn to control it. All while the demonic powers of the mage council are quickly taking over all societies. When they discover her for who she really is, the stakes go through the roof - quickly!One thing that bears warning is the odd non-endings in this series. One must accept that it is one long story that just pauses every few hundred pages. None of the individual books really have a specific arc and conclusion within the overall arc of the series storyline like most others do. It just... well... pauses in the story at the end of each book. While they can’t be considered actual cliff-hangers or a full-stop endings, because they do end at a point that doesn’t exactly throw one of the cliff or leave us hanging mid-fight per-say, it is frustrating when we know the storyline won’t pick up again for an entire year (when the next book publishes.)

The adventure is getting intense, and Elloren is now part of a war that started because of her. But she has friends who train her, and it’s been wonderful to go on this journey with her. Learning more about each of the different customs has also been really interesting. I’m really enjoying this storyline, and look forward to reading book 4!

The Black Witch continúes the series in this book. All converges with surprises all along. A very good plot, sustained by excellent prose of L. Forest. Waiting for next book

First of all, this series was one that I completely stumbled across on Amazon recently and decided to give it a try. Three books later, read in record time, simply shows how great they really are. I was completely thrown into this world - the description, character building, and story telling is amazing and firmly had me hooked from the very beginning! I have throughly enjoyed reading the journey of the Black Witch so far and I can't wait for the next book, so I can find out what happens ( I hope I don't have to wait too long...!) Thank you Laurie for writing such an enjoyable series and providing me with an excellent read, you are definitely one to follow and I will be eagerly awaiting the next book...For anybody looking for a new YA book series that you simply won't be able to put down, then this is for you.....

Auch diese spannende Folge liest sich flüssig, die Seiten fliegen vorbei. Von allen verlassen und verfolgt sieht Elloren nur noch die eine Möglichkeit, in der gefährlichen und feindlichen Heimat Schutz zu suchen. Beim Militär-Magier Lukas Grey, den sie zurückgestossen hat. Entsprechen sieht der Empfang aus.Dass Elloren völlig durcheinander, ohne Selbstbewusstsein und voller Trauer ist, kann ich nach dieser Behandlung und ihren schlimmen Erfahrungen gut nachvollziehen. Aufgrund der vielen Protagonisten wäre mir am Anfang eine kleine Beschreibung hilfreich gewesen, um das Gedächtnis aufzufrischen. Insgesamt sehr empfehlenswert.

The trend of dependant Elloren is kept it was understandable in the first two books as it showed her humanity but not anymore the heroine only grew balls in the last 10 or so pages aside from that it was a good book